Ré Phillips
Multidisciplinary Artist | Storyteller | Researcher | Strategist | Coach
Cultivating soft place to land for curious changemakers and creatives
Ré Phillips is a multidisciplinary artist, doctoral researcher, impact strategist, coach, and storyteller from the American South. She is an unusual combination of creative power, research, advocacy, and commercial experience gained in the arts, the international development sector, and the financial services sector across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East.
As an Atlanta, Georgia native, Ré grew up amidst the legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement, and as a result, her work is influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King’s ideas of non-violence and equity. Ré’s work sits at the intersection of art, culture, and social advocacy. She unpacks complex human experiences and global challenges through her creative practice, research practice, and advocacy work.
Ré Phillips. Martin Luther the KING (2019)
Mixed Media on Canvas. 30 x 40 inches
Her passion has garnered international prizes and awards including:
The SOAS Department of Politics 60th Anniversary Scholarship (2022-2026)
The World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper Initiative (2015-2018)
The Fulbright Fellowship (2013-2014)
The Rare Rising Stars UK Award (2013)
The Call to Conscience Award from the Stanford Martin Luther King Research & Education Institute (2012)
The Stanford University Kennell Jackson Award (2010)
The American India Foundation Clinton Fellowship for Service in India (2010-2011)
The Princeton Prize in Race-Relations (2006)
Ré graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Highest Honors) from Stanford University in 2010, a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) from the University of Oxford, St. Antony's College in 2013, and was an international exchange student at Peking University in Beijing, China, in 2009. She is currently a doctoral researcher pursuing a Ph.D. at SOAS, University of London.
Ré is a former artist-in-residence at the European Ceramic Work Center (Netherlands), the Atlanta Central Library (USA), the World of Co (Bulgaria), and the Nieuw en Meer (Netherlands).
Today Ré maintains a portfolio career that centers impact consulting, research, ceramics, and writing. She lives and works between London, Atlanta, and Amsterdam.
Pillars of Work
Since 2010, Ré has maintained a multidisciplinary art practice spanning performance, painting, montage, and ceramics. Her work deeply informed by her background as an international cultural envoy working with various national theater companies, galleries, and cultural organizations globally. Ré’s work has been exhibited in Lebanon (Beirut), India (New Delhi), Spain (Barcelona), England (Oxford), Turkey (Ankara), China (Guangzhou), and the United States (Atlanta and Palo Alto). A former artist-in-residence at the acclaimed European Ceramic Work Centre, Ré is now focused on creating ceramic sculptures that interrogate various aspects of the human experience, such as grief, identity, longing, and devotion.
Ré is an emerging writer. Her storytelling is layered and address local and global dilemmas through a deeply personal lens– a lens which marries true narratives together with fanciful fiction. Ultimately, she hopes to alchemize both personal and global socio‐political struggles into works of beauty, hope, and fascination, for both the viewers and for herself. In fiction writing, she enjoys surfacing difficult questions, highlighting little-known black stories, and finding new ways to make people see things. She recently completed her first full-length historical fiction novel, Black China, for which she is currently seeking representation.
Ré is doctoral researcher in the SOAS, University of London, Department of Politics and International Studies and a recipient of the Department's 60th Anniversary Ph.D. Scholarship. Ré has extensive research experience, having conducted several multi-year, transnational interdisciplinary research projects. She has been previously awarded fellowships and funding from the Fulbright Commission, the American India Foundation, the Office of the Stanford University Vice Provost for Education, and the University of Oxford Department of International Development. Her current research project is focused on the role of visual currency in China-Africa relations, with a focus on contemporary Kenya.
Ré is co-founder of Root to Bloom, a social enterprise and women of color-led consulting collective that supports creativepreneurs and social entrepreneurs to scale their impact and champions progressive funders to resource their operations, define their strategies, visualize their impact, and dream for the future. With the mission to nurture an ecosystem where funders are rooted in a brave vision of impact and where purpose-leaders are sustainably resourced, Root to Bloom has supported more than ten visionary organizations to mobilize millions in innovative funding and provided resource mobilization skills-building, strategic advising, and organizational storytelling, for multiple grassroots movements. Learn more about Root to Bloom here.
As a certified coach for changemakers & creatives, Ré guides young women to a deeper sense of creativity, self-development, healing, and purpose. She has worked with women and girls globally on their journey to become more brave, self-aware, mindful, and creative. She has guided individuals on topics such as leadership, mindset, decision-making, self-expression, and overcoming objections. She has worked with clients from diverse backgrounds in 15+ countries, including the US, India, Trinidad, Kenya, Ghana, Brazil, Peru, Spain, Macedonia, Nepal, South Africa, and France. She takes a special interest in those who identify as empaths, highly sensitive persons, neurodivergent, artists, religious, and those that struggle with mental well-being. Learn more about coaching opportunities here.